Sony's secrets from the heart of Hollywood

I'm writing from the back of an conference room in the crux of Hollywood at the iMedia Entertainment Summit (check out #imediasummit to see what's happening as it's happening). Before I get into Sony's great, sound-bite-full presentation, I feel obligated to note sightings of three of last year's iMedia's Top 10 Hottest Digital Marketers. Kent Speakman, Nicole Butte, and Bettina Sherick (one of the events co-chairs): You might not see me, BUT I SEE YOU.

Bettina and fellow co-chair Kevin Doohan opened the conference with both of them gaining major cool points in my book, Bettina with her honesty, humor, and good taste in TV (South Park, specifically the excellent, relevant episode, "The day the internet stood still"), and Kevin with his references to the Creator's Project and VICE's amazing video series, Hamilton's Pharmacopeia. Well done, you two.

Get it? Digital fireside chat????? I know. Genius.

On to Sony's keynote "Fireside Chat": "Sony's Unique Approach to Digital Marketing." Sony's SVPs and childhood friends Elias Plishner and Jake Zim were joined on stage by Gordon Paddison, CEO of Stradella Road. Elias, the SVP of worldwide digital marketing, deserves most of the credit in terms of soundbites. The short list I created of "most retweeted quotes" from the presentation all came from him. However, Jake, the SVP of digital marketing, said several things that caught my attention, namely that "people only need one reason not to go to the movies these days." Truth time: I have missed out on seeing movies I genuinely wanted to see for the following reasons:

A/C: I quite literally couldn't find a sweater that went with my outfit and was too lazy to change

Parking/driving: Not wanting to get in the car or walk a half hour to the closest theater

Candy: Not wanting to eat candy or popcorn but knowing I can't trust myself to eat responsibly (seriously, no popcorn and Sno-Caps at the movies?? IMPOSSIBLE)

The theme today is "disruption" and that quote encapsulates exactly that. We're way over-stimulated these days, and if you don't get our attention and make keeping it worth our while, we're going to tune out. Oh, and you only have two seconds to get our attention. It's tough out there for the entertainment industry! Luckily, they're innovating quickly: Jake (or Elias, I can't remember...) mentioned that Sony has an internal mandate to launch "x number" of new tech initiatives. It came up when Gordon asked, "What are three things you look for in a Sony vendor?" The answers:

Story: How are we telling the story on this platform, using this technology